The Department of Spanish and Portuguese is thrilled to welcome Sabrina Grohsebner, a collaborator on the research project The Interpretation of Childbirth in Early Modern Spain at the University of Vienna and a Junior Fellow at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies (IFK). Her research on the role and representation of midwives in early modern Spain brings her to our department this spring semester until April 15, 2022. The associative systems that link childbirth and childrearing with other types of female work in the premodern era include the production of textiles. Earlier this year she contributed the article “Parteras profetisas” to the exhibit “Culturas del parto en España y Europa” at the Museo Virtual de Ecología Humana. and her article, “Threads of Life: The Golden Age Midwife Amidst Cloth, Tissue, and Antique Deities of Fate” appeared in Avisos de Viena 1 (2020). Sabrina’s research on the role and representation of midwives in early modern Spanish culture reveals how these hands were sacralized and demonized, viewed as instruments of social practice,welcoming living beings and, at the same time, creating members of a community. Inspired by considerations of cultural anthropologyand sociobiology, she examines medical treatises, literary works and hagiographic texts.
March 29, 2022